To fan's football is much more important than a game, to which I agree. But it seems a football club's hierarchy have taken that view in a different light and ruined football for good, and it is something I think should have been addressed along long time ago.
This week we heard the news about Mike Ashley changing one of football's most historic ground names, St James' Park, to the much more fierce and threatening feel: Sports Direct Arena. Football in the 21st century seems to be embraced by money. It's not new news, it has been here for a while now, but that is the reason I want to address. Why has it become so important in football, and why has it been so important for so long?
"Football back in my day..." is a quote we always hear from people that witnessed football before the invention of the Premier League. What will we be saying 50/60 years down the line? "Back in my day £30 million wasn't a lot of money"? It's just getting ridiculous with the latest development of Mike Ashley tarnishing the history of St James' Park with in what seems such a simple step to the 'Sports Direct Arena'. This need and apparent desire for owners to do this to our national stadiums is absurd and I for one want to make a stand.
I'm not saying that it is easy for vasts amount of money to stop being pumped into football, but there has to be a fine line to where it ends, doesn't it? Simple things like cutting down football players ego's now by cutting wage bills to reasonable wage packets is a massive must! Football players have too much of an ego nowadays that it's not the club that matters that they move to, it's all about the wage bill on offer? Samuel Eto'o I am talking about you. Transfers: surely there can be a cut on price of players, players haven't got extremely better in under 40 years that a young Kenny Dalglish was bought for £440,00 and nowadays clubs can buy players over 100 times that amount! Simple things like that will not only cut the owners debt in clubs but also make teams equal and not about individuals.
I'm a Liverpool fan, i don't really hide that well, so obviously I'm renowned to talk about the history of Anfield and my view on moving stadiums, but it's not just these stories. We've seen stadiums like Wigan's change from JJB stadium to the DW stadium, why, because Dave Whelan matters more than Wigan Athletic apparently. Stadiums like the KC stadium for Hull and the Reebok Stadium for Bolton may have a bit of history with that name but fans before these 'major' sponsorship deals must have thought why?
There is absolutely NO need for stadiums names being tarnished because owners think they can make extra cash from sponsorship deals. Fans are the biggest investment football teams have and they are only pushing them away with these type of shenanigans. Mike Ashley has to be the biggest culprit here. His club are on the best run for over 50 years, fans are finally enjoying football at this historical club, everything seems rosy for him as the owner once again and then in true Mike Ashley fashion he manages to face a huge backlash from fans that could ultimately end in fans to busy chanting about the stadium name to actually concentrate on what matters. Football.
Because that is what football is at the end of the day. Just Football.
